


Loud and Clear

by fandomsandxfiles



Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [4]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, F/M, Fluff, Radio Communication, This is a collab so there's art included!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26222080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/fandomsandxfiles
Summary: In which Fox and Dana fall in love, without seeing each other in person.Includes art by @ariverofsongs
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020487
Comments: 12
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is a collab with the wonderful [@ariverofsongs](https://ariverofsongs.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, who did an amazing drawing to accompany the fic! you can see the art in the second chapter :) 
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr [@fandomsandxfiles](https://fandomsandxfiles.tumblr.com/)

His call sign was "Predator," despite that apparently not being a very good descriptor for his personality. He had other nicknames, but "Call Sign: Spooky" didn't roll off the tongue as nicely as the other one did. That was fine though, because Fox Mulder wasn’t really too broken up about it. 

He was the top test pilot on the base, despite keeping to himself most of the time. He could be occasionally spotted walking from building to building, almost always holding a handful of sunflower seeds to snack on. Everyone wondered why he was there, why he wasn't at a bigger base or even overseas, or why he wasn't higher up on the chain of command. He was the talk of the base on most days, something not everyone always understood. 

Dana Scully was one of those people that just didn't get it. She was the newest hire in the radio tower, and she quickly learned that there was no short supply of gossip when it came to the other ladies who worked there. And most of that gossip was about the test pilots, probably because they had the most contact with them compared to others on the base. It was their job to maintain radio contact with the test pilots during their flights, and try and record as much of what the pilot was saying as possible - because more often than not, when they touched down on the ground, all thoughts about the flight and the plane they were testing left their head. 

And most days, Fox Mulder was the subject of that gossip. Where he was, what he was flying, how Clara swears on her life that he winked at her one day when she was walking over to the radio tower. Dana doesn't believe that for a second, but she finds the other ladies' reactions amusing. She's never met the mysterious test pilot, or even worked the radio tower for one of his flights, but she feels like she already knows so much about him. 

Saturdays were quiet on the base, and she was often by herself in the radio tower. On that day in particular, only one test flight was planned, so she volunteered to work. Before the plane was set to take off, a voice crackled through the communicator. "Flight Tower, this is Call Sign: Predator, do you read me?" 

"You're reading clear," Dana said. 

"Haven't heard you before, you new?" the pilot said. 

"Not exactly," she replied. "I've just never been stuck with you before." 

"Oh come on, don't be like that," was the response. She could hear him laughing through the radio. "At least tell me your name if you're going to hurt me like that." 

"Dana Scully," she answered. "And what should I call you? Predator?" 

"Fox Mulder, but just Mulder is fine. I hate that call sign." Dana laughed, and he continued to speak. "So Scully, what'd you do to get stuck here on a Saturday morning?"

"I volunteered actually," she said. "Being up here in the radio tower definitely beats sorting through files in the offices, so when I heard that there was a test flight, I jumped at the chance." 

The rest of the test flight was uneventful, and they made idle conversation the entire time. She asks about his family, he asks about hers. They discuss the war, and what was going on at the base. The one thing Dana didn't ask about though, was his call sign, despite the fact that she really wanted to know how he became “Predator.”

***

She didn't think about the flight or her conversations with Mulder again until a few days later, and even then it wasn't her choice. "So Dana, who was the pilot on Saturday?" Evelyn asked as her and a few others walked over to the radio tower. 

"It was Fox Mulder," Dana answered. 

She was met with a loud squeal from the other ladies. "Really? What was he like?" Ethel asked, butting into the conversation

Dana gave the other women a confused look. "He's nice, I guess. Nothing happened on the flight so everything was pretty normal. Haven't any of you worked one of his test flights?" 

The other ladies shook their heads. "Some of the other girls have, but I haven't," Evelyn said. 

"Well it wasn't that much of a big deal," Dana laughed. "I still don't see why all of you are obsessed with him."

Thankfully, the topic of conversation changed not long after that, and Dana almost forgot about Fox Mulder again. That is, until she put her headset on and the first flight checked in. 

"This is Call Sign: Predator, do you read me?" 

"Loud and clear." 

"Scully!" Mulder's voice came through the radio. "Do you ever relax? Or are you always working?" 

"Well Mulder, I don't know if you've noticed, but there is a war going on," she joked. Evelyn turned to her when she said his name, a smile on her face. Scully raised her eyebrows at her and made a shooing gesture, and Evelyn eventually rolled her eyes before silently returning to her own radio. 

"You're right, I hardly noticed, thanks for letting me know," Mulder said sarcastically. "I guess I just fly these planes for fun then." 

***

After that day, to each other they became Mulder and Scully, not Fox and Dana. She was always on the radio when he took test flights, and he always made her laugh, even if she said she wasn't going to laugh that day. They became friends without ever seeing each other's faces. And soon, as much as neither of them wanted to admit it, they were each other’s best friends. Mulder had always been a bit of a loner on the base, because even if some of the women tried to flirt with him he always politely rejected their advances. And for Scully, once the other women realized that she and Mulder had become close she became the object of stares and the topic of gossip, and she often wished that she could go back to being invisible. 

She did learn the meaning behind his call sign, that it was a reference to his first name. She also learned that he hated his name, and he almost always went by Mulder when he could get away with it. Scully only called him Predator when she was feigning anger at him, normally after he said something wild and outlandish. He started calling her Dana as a rebuttal. 

One day, Mulder caught a glimpse of a redheaded woman walking across the base. She was beautiful, walking with her head held high. And almost immediately, Mulder felt drawn to her. He watched her walk into the main records building, and he did nothing to follow her. He let the mystery woman leave his sights, and later he cursed himself for it, because it was more than likely he would never see her again. 

So he did the only thing he could think to do: he became more visible on the base. It used to be that you could catch glimpses of him every once in a while; now, he was out and about daily. He told himself he was just taking in the surroundings, but deep down he knew he wasn’t fooling himself. He was watching for her. 

He only told one other person about the mystery woman. “Hey Scully, do you know the women who work in the main records building?” he asked one day, mid-flight. 

“Not really, I’m rarely over there, why?” 

“I saw a woman I didn’t recognize there the other day, I was just wondering if you might know her. Do you know of anyone who works in that building with red hair?” 

Scully wracked her brain, trying to remember all the women she spoke to when she stopped in a few days ago, but she didn’t remember meeting anyone with red hair. “No,” she said. “Like I said, I’m not over there that often, so I’m not the best person to ask.” 

Mulder dropped the subject after that, and neither of them realized the true identity of the woman that Mulder was enamored with. 

***

More and more time passed, and their routine never wavered. Mulder went to his superiors and scheduled all his test flights when he knew that Scully would be in the radio tower. Scully never asked him how he always seemed to know when she was scheduled, and if she was being honest with herself, sometimes she wondered if it was fate. Because as much as she told herself that she didn’t believe in fate or destiny, this felt different. And she’d rather admit to believing in fate than admit that she was starting to feel attracted to Mulder, a man she’d never even seen in person. 

Mulder, on the other hand, was grappling with a different dilemma. He felt at home with Scully, despite the fact that he didn’t know what she looked like. But at the same time, he was still locked in a search for the mystery woman he saw that day, so he didn’t know what to do. A little over a month had gone by, and Mulder hadn’t seen her again. He was starting to become disheartened. 

And then one day, he did see her again. She was walking across the base, chatting quietly with a woman Mulder didn’t know personally, but had seen around before. He drew closer, hoping it didn’t seem like he was following them. He heard her laugh, and Mulder could have sworn he’d heard that laugh before. But it wasn’t until the other woman referred to her as “Dana” that all the pieces clicked in his mind. “Scully?” he said incredulously, slightly louder than he intended to. 

The mystery woman turned around and stared at him for a moment. “Mulder?” she asked, and that’s when Mulder realized the answer to his dilemma: that the woman he’d been pining for from afar was the same woman he was slowly falling in love with over the radio.

The woman she was with gave Scully a strange look before leaving, and Mulder continued to stare at her, not knowing what to say. “Hi,” he finally settled on, but he despised that the moment it left his lips.

“Hi,” she said, matching his uncertain tone. 

It was awkward, you couldn’t deny that. Even with Scully not sharing in Mulder’s realization that it was actually her he saw that day, she could feel the tension between them. Neither of them were prepared to run into each other, and if they were being completely honest with themselves, they never really expected to meet at all. A lot could be assumed about their relationship when they were communicating strictly over the radio, and neither of them had wanted to potentially damage the friendship they had built by crossing any lines. 

A few lines of idle conversation later they went their separate ways, and Mulder had a lot to think about. He wanted to tell Scully, but how could he do that without making any major changes. He was selfish, and he was afraid of rejection. Part of him wanted to hold on to the easy friendship he had with Scully, but he also knew that he couldn’t maintain that for too much longer

***

The next time Scully was in the flight tower, Evelyn was asking her about Mulder. She had been walking with Scully when her and Mulder saw each other, and she wanted to know what had happened. “It was nothing,” Scully kept saying. “We only spoke for a few minutes.” 

The sound of radio feedback in her ear saved Scully from having to answer any more questions, because now she had work to do. “This is Call Sign: Predator, do you read me?” Mulder’s voice came through. 

“Loud and clear.” It was like they had a script at this point. He confirmed his call sign, she confirmed that she could hear him, and then he took off. Sometimes they would talk before Mulder was in the air, but most of the time it wasn’t until the plane was in the sky did they start talking about things other than work.

But this time, something felt different. Maybe it was the realizations weighing on both of their minds that something had changed between them since they ran into each other that day, or just the fact that neither of them knew what to say about it. 

Everything was going smoothly, until it suddenly wasn’t. First, the radio cut out for a few seconds when the plane was already in the air, which was common, but the plane that Mulder was testing was one of the more experimental ones. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, and it was especially important for him to be able to communicate. 

But the real problem came when he was preparing to land - and the main panel shorted, causing Mulder to lose control of the plane. Thankfully, he was only about ten feet from the ground, but it still wasn’t good. “Scully! I-” he shouted, his voice garbled through the radio. And then she heard nothing.

Scully looked out the window from the tower. People were running all over, and she could see smoke coming from the crashed plane in the airfield. Ignoring all protocol, she ripped off her headset and raced out of the room, to the shock of the others. Seconds later, she was sprinting down the stairs and out of the building, towards the airfield and the site of the crash. She only stopped running to watch two men pull Mulder out of the plane, but he was thankfully still conscious. Scully immediately tried to push past the crowd that was gathering around the wreck. 

When she finally got through, a medic was checking Mulder for any major injuries, and others were working on getting the fire out. But Scully didn’t care about the fire or the plane, she was much more concerned about the pilot. She had been grappling with an attraction to Mulder for longer than she’d like to admit, one that only became more pervasive when she saw him in person, and she didn’t want to lose him. She stopped next to him, and he smiled at her. “Scully,” he said quietly. “My radio cut out.” 

“I know,” she said. “Are you okay?” 

“I said I’m fine, but they’re taking me to get checked out,” he said, giving her a look. 

Scully didn’t get a chance to respond before she was being shooed away from the scene by the medics. So she returned back to the radio tower, finished filling out the paperwork for Mulder’s flight, and stared out the tower window. The other women had long since left, and she sat there until the sun was beginning to set. 

She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, but when she left the radio tower she found herself walking into the medical building. She saw him, sitting upright on a cot, and he smiled when he saw her. Now she couldn’t leave. “Scully!” Mulder said when she walked over to him. “I was wondering if you’d come and visit me!” 

“I didn’t know if you’d be here,” she admitted. “Are they making you stay?” 

“Yeah, but just for the night, and honestly it beats sleeping in the barracks. At least it’s quiet around here.” 

“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly. “You were saying something on the radio before it cut out.” 

Mulder looked puzzled for a second, but then a look of realization crossed his face. “I’m fine,” he said quietly. “I was actually hoping you didn’t hear that.” 

“Didn’t hear what?”

“So you didn’t hear anything?” 

“I heard my name, and then it cut out,” she said. “What were you saying?” 

“Well if you didn’t hear it, why should I tell you now?” She gave him a disapproving look and raised her eyebrows. Eventually, Mulder nodded in defeat and took a deep breath before speaking again. “In that moment, I wanted you to know that you were the woman I saw that day on the base, the one I thought was so beautiful that I nearly tripped over my own two feet. And I didn’t ever plan on telling you, because I hated the day that we first met in person, and I told myself that I’d rather only talk to you over the radio if it meant that I never had to go through that again. But then the plane was crashing, and all I could think about was how I wanted you to know.” 

Scully wasn’t speechless very often, but she didn’t know what to say. She took a step closer to him and he reached out and grasped her hand. “Mulder,” she said. “Are you sure? That it was me?” 

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he said. “And here I was mad at myself because I was falling for you too, despite the fact that you and her were the same person.”

Scully still didn’t know what to say. She sat down on the bed, facing him. “Mulder,” she said. 

But she didn’t get to finish that thought, because he was leaning closer to her. She instinctively scooted closer to him. When they were inches apart, he stopped. “Can I kiss you?” he whispered. 

“Yes,” she breathed, and their lips connected. He was still holding her hand, and when they finally broke apart, she could feel the grin spreading over her face.

“Scully, I love you, you know that?” he asked as he raised her hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss to the back of it.

“I hear you Mulder. Loud and clear.”

_\- the end -_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> companion art for the fic done by [@ariverofsongs!](https://ariverofsongs.tumblr.com/) Go follow her on tumblr!


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